The construction and assembly of equipment, such as aircraft, frequently entails drilling holes to accommodate fasteners in structures and fabricating countersinks in such holes to seat the countersunk heads of low-profile fasteners. It is typically important that such holes and countersinks be located accurately and that they be fabricated precisely. In high-volume fabrication operations requiring the fabrication of large numbers of holes and countersinks, it is often important that the time to accomplish such fabrication operations be minimized so as to minimize cost and that such fabrication operations be repeatable.
It is conventional in the construction and assembly of equipment with many sets of holes and countersinks to drill many holes in succession using a drill plate. The drill plate, which has one or more accurately positioned holes that extend therethrough, is aligned and secured to a workpiece such that the desired location of the holes in the workpiece correspond to the holes in the drill plate. In some instances, it is desirable to attach the drill motor to the drill plate so that the operator does not have to counteract the full weight of the drill motor and, where the drill motor is equipped with a self-feeding mechanism, counteract the thrust that is produced by the self-feeding mechanism.
It is conventional to remove such drill plates after the formation of the holes and countersinks to permit the fasteners to be inserted into the holes via unguided hand-held rivet guns. As those skilled in the art will understand, construction of equipment in this manner is not always desirable in that the uncoupling of the drill plate permits the workpieces to shift relative to one another. This shifting has been known to initiate the presence of gaps between the workpieces and/or to adversely affect the orientation of the workpieces relative to one another. Furthermore, the use of unguided hand-held rivet guns increases the possibility that the surface of one of the workpieces will become damaged through contact with the rivet guns' reciprocating installation tool and/or prolonged driving of the head of the fastener into the surface of the workpiece.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for an improved fastener installation tool that can be used in conjunction with drill plates and other such tooling in a manner that overcomes the aforementioned drawbacks.